A Travis McGee mystery. It wasn't Harry Broll turning up out of the blue with a gun that made McGee scrap his programme of love and leisure aboard his houseboat. Mary Broll and Travis had once been very close, and if, as Harry said, Mary had vanished without a word, she must be in serious trouble.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
*Starred Review* MacDonald’s Travis McGee (“a refugee from a plastic-structured culture, uninsured, unadjusted, and unconvinced”) remains, long after the 21-volume series ended in 1985, one of the crime genre’s most appealing nonconformists. He lives the life every individualist craves: independent, adventurous, and unpredictable. Sequestered on his houseboat sanctuary, The Busted Flush (won in a poker game), moored in slip F-18, Bahia Mar Marina, Fort Lauderdale, he ventures out into the wider world whenever someone he cares about loses something—a loved one, money, or even self-respect—getting back whatever has been lost and keeping 50 percent of the profits. This novel, the thirteenth in the series and quite possibly the best, represents an important turning point for McGee. On the surface, it looks like a typical McGee adventure: our hero discovers that one of his “wounded ducklings” (emotionally scarred women he has nursed back to psychic and sexual health) has disappeared, leaving a distraught husband. McGee smells foul play and is soon locked in mortal combat with a Ted Bundy–like psycho who enjoys torturing his victims. Although McGee eventually dispatches his antagonist, it is not before much damage has been done, both to the people he was trying to protect and to his own sense of self. For the first time in the series, McGee is truly vulnerable: “In all my approximately seventy-six inches of torn and mended flesh and hide, in all my approximately fifteen-stone weight of meat, bone, and dismay, I sat on that damned bed and felt degraded.” McGee’s “wounding” forces MacDonald to deal with an inevitable problem for series authors: how to let the heroes grow and change without sacrificing their mythic stature. By immersing Travis a little further into the everyday world of slowed reflexes and failing nerves, MacDonald heightens the tension between myth and reality, and we receive a stronger jolt of mythic energy when that tension is released. “I know what counts,” Travis tells us, “is the feeling I get when I make my own luck.” After A Tan and Sandy Silence, that feeling is harder to come by, but it’s all the more satisfying when it finally arrives. --Bill Ott
--This text refers to an alternate
Mass Market Paperback
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not quite up to snuff,
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This review is from: A Tan and Sandy Silence (Travis McGee Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)
This was my fourth or fifth Travis McGee novel, and I have to say I was a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, MacDonald is still MacDonald and the book is well written and engaging, but I thought overall "Tan and Sandy Silence" was lacking somehow. Maybe it's that this is obviously one of his later books and he was getting bored or tired, or maybe it's just something I didn't notice in his other books, but he seemed to take the easy way out a few times. For instance, when McGee interviews people the conversations don't seem realistic--the people volunteer too much information: If you just met someone and they asked what you knew about your next-door neighbor would you say, "Well, not a lot other than she just opened an account at the Blah-Blah Bank and her loan officer is John Blah"? (How convenient!) Also, there was an element of predictability that may have come from reading his other books; I knew certain characters were going to die, and even is one or two instances HOW they would die. Some of McGee's encounters seemed too coincidental and lucky, with old friends showing up at just the right time and place to save his skin. Finally, the ending appeared rushed and illogical and didn't tie up all the loose ends.But even with all that, there was enough fun and suspense and McGee-ism to make this a worthwhile read. You could certainly do far worse.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fun in the sun,
By
This review is from: A Tan and Sandy Silence (Travis McGee Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)
Over the years I've read hundreds of novels in a variety of genres, but for pure fun and enjoyment it's hard to beat Travis McGee. Some of the books are better than others, but they're nearly all worth a couple of lazy summer days. They are the ultimate summer time, quick-read beach books. At their core, they're good mysteries. But Travis McGee is such a great character, with such a wry outlook on life, that often the mystery seems secondary to McGee's views on whatever topic author John D. McDonald has selected for his soap box. Most of them take place in Florida, (a Florida no one will ever see again given they were written mostly in the 60s and 70s) and all have a color in the title. Don't take them too seriously, just have fun in the sun.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Love it or hate it, you will not forget it.,
By
This review is from: A Tan and Sandy Silence (Travis McGee Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)
A Tan and Sandy Silence is certainly not the best book John D. MacDonald ever authored. In fact, some may find it way too dark and unsettingly disturbing. Others may object to it for a host of very legitimate reasons. But I daresay that even those readers who find themselves hating this Travis McGee novel still will have to admit it is a substantive, unforgettable read.The unevenly paced narrative revolves around McGee's efforts to locate Mary Broll, a former lover whom no one seems to have seen in over three months. His search takes him to the tropical island of Grenada where the case takes on an entirely different trajectory. As others have already accurately pointed out, the novel starts off slow, climaxes with some very macabre events and has somewhat of a rushed ending. Along the way, the reader is treated to large helpings of Travis McGee's introspection on a wide range of topics having to do with modern life. After a while, this inner monologue, though at times clever, becomes tiresome and gives the impression of too much self-indulgence on author MacDonald's part. Other objectionable aspects of this book include its incorporation of an excessive amount of amateur psychology into the plot and the fact that McGee never, ever fails to completely captivate members of the opposite sex. The positive attributes of this book would have to include MacDonald's very evocative and original brand of prose and the presence of a number of characters who come off as quite believable. John D. MacDonald was unquestionably a great writer, but A Tan and Sandy Silence is one of his lesser works. He was capable of much better.
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